Inaugural spikes

Posted January 20th, 2009 at 3:33 pm by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

Number of Comments 3 Comments / Filed in: Behind the Scenes

A team of editors in Yahoo! Search is in the very enviable position of being able to peer deeply into the minds of the collective Yahoo! populace at any given moment — watching anonymized keywords that spike as people search for news and information related to current events.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what our users were most curious about today as they watched the swearing in of our 44th president:

Oath of office – people were keen to read about “john roberts flub” as the Chief Justice stumbled slightly on the oath
Aretha Franklin – that hat was on everyone’s mind; there were also questions about how old she is, along with confusion about her name (“anita franklin”)
Joseph Lowery – people were buzzing about the Reverend and his funky benediction
Dick Cheney wheelchair – why exactly was he in a wheelchair?
Obama speech – because hearing it once was evidently not enough
Inaugural lunch menu – great curiosity about what was being served to the President on this historic day
Abraham Lincoln – searches about his bible as well as quotes that might have been invoked today
How old is Obama - shouldn’t it be how “young” is Obama?
Readings/music - there were spikes on particular pieces and lyrics, including misheard phrases (“air and simple gifts” and the misheard “heir and simple gifts”)
Bush daughters’ letter to Obama daughters – interest in the advice between First Daughters
Activities/lesson plans – parents and teachers searched for all sorts of things for kids, like coloring pages, lesson plans, activities, word searches
Live coverage – an unprecedented global audience sought the experience live online
Obama’s limo – there was great interest in this James Bondian machine.
Tuskegee Airmen – people sought background on this group of World War II pilots who broke the color barrier in military aviation
Michelle Obama dress – as usual, fashionistas wanted all the skinny on who designed Michelle’s dress (it was Isabel Toledo)

And if you get a chance, check out the Flickr Inauguration 2009 pool, which now boasts more than 4,000 images from the inaugural festivities.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo from erin m

Tagged: Behind the Scenes, yahoo! search

3 Comments Add your own

Comment gag | January 22nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm

i have worked as an editor at yahoo! and would love to get back
i would like to reinvent search, hire me

Comment Nick Jonas | January 26th, 2009 at 6:48 am

What a great post – yes, I did lots of searching during the inauguration, some of it for twitter posts actually.
I definitely wanted to find the ‘correct’ Oath of Office immediately after the swearing-in. I also wanted to know about ‘inauguration security’ – i.e. what special precautions the secret service was taking to make sure ObamaNation was safe!

Comment Elton | July 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 pm

I used to live in DC and wish I could have gone to this. I’m surprised everything went so smoothly.